a study by Anderson Analytics confirms what everyone already suspects: LinkedIn users are rich.
Nearly 60% of users have incomes of $93,000 or more. Executives with an average income of $104,000 make up 28% of the 2,000 random users polled for the study. Another 30% are self-identified “consultants” with an average income of $93,000.
People with lots of connections tend to make more money, according to the study – those with incomes between $200-$350k were seven times more likely to have at least 150 connections than lower income users.
The study segmented users into four categories: executives (28%), networkers/consultants (30%), late adopters (22%) (not sure what this is) and “exploring options (20%).
I mostly abandoned LinkedIn long ago, simply because i couldn’t deal with the volume of inbound requests for introductions and other LinkedIn business. It’s a salesperson’s heaven (another word for “consultant” and “saavy networker” is salesperson). Rich people tend to have more connections, says the survey, which makes sense. These poor executives are constantly being bombarded with connection requests.
So if you have something to sell, stop wasting time on Facebook and MySpace. Get yourself on LinkedIn and add a couple of hundred connections. Before you know it you’ll be pulling in $350k.
Dear Mr. Arrington. Please buy the book Freakonomics and read the chapter about -Rich people don’t have idiot names- or ask yourselve about the difference between causality and correlation
you mean if you get 150 connections, you don’t then automatically get a ton of money?
“Rich (But Still Annoying)??” I say, “takes one to know one.” (( Here’s looking at YOU, Mister Arrington! ::))
HAH~jkatt
heh. right.
Yeah right. Wannabe.
Come on, guys – wake up. And keep on playing the lottery. LOL
I offer a free service to build your Linkedin network automatically. Click my name to check it out. You can have 2000 direct connections (10 million network size) in a week with no effort. Spamming your connections will ruin you, but if you have a solid lead generation product you can get the interested ones to opt-in. It’s a solid way to build a quality list.
For those tempted to try the “build your network automatically” program mentioned above – save yourself the bother. Just tried it for you. His list was last updated ten months ago and has less than a third of the number he claims above – and nearly 10% of the list is not actually on LinkedIn (meaning that they are old/outdated/fake email addresses that are not actually connected to any account on LinkedIn). And, of the few people on the list who did actually connect, nearly all of them are also part of TopLinked.com – so save yourself the trouble and instead go directly to http://www.toplinked.com
And yes, full disclosure: if the above service had actually been useful, it might have been considered our competition (TopLinked.com is the largest open networker service on LinkedIn with 21,000+ active participants). But, even more importantly, TopLinked.com participants are not there to spam, but rather they are open networkers – meaning people who are open to new opportunities and new connections – people who treat business networking like a giant industry conference where people go to meet, learn, and connect.
Who, for god sake, needs anything like this? Indiscriminate adding of new contacts discredits the figure you want to make out of it all…
Great, now I can spam the hell out of my 2000 connections with my product.
The analyst forgot to take into account that most LinkedIn users are educated with at least a college degree and not some late night shopping channel viewers who will buy any donkey that they see.
That and you can’t spam your connections, you’re limited to sending messages to 5 users (I think it’s 5) at one time. Also, Mike, you can disable all those incoming requests and customise notifications, similar to how FB works. I used to hate Linkedin but now I love it.
Paul,
Most people don’t use LinkedIn system to spam others, they can simply download their contact list and send emails to everyone. The whole system is pretty backwards.
lol!
Hey Mike,
If you call your product spam-defined, then have a nice spamming, pal.
2000 connections? Do you know – even virtually – and have anything in common at least 20% of them?
)
Yes, just got the notify from linkedin,
but not richer than facebook…
Getting too far from the point. Don`t you think?
Gee….and here, I thought Barack had let everybody off the hook about “being rich” who makes less than $200K/year. Or hadn’t you heard, Michael??? ::))
HAH~jkatt
How were these surveys conducted? I’m sure tons of myspace users would report incomes of over 100k. Seriously, was it a random pop-up survey or what? Give me some context, plz.
Hey pals, we are talking about two completely different kinds of social networking. In fact, LinkedIn is not a social network. It is more likely a business one. No paragons. You can compare MySpace and Facebook (even though MySpace is light years ahead), but not LinkedIn-MySpace or LinkedIn-Facebook.
That annoying part is a general observation or just yours Michael?
“those with incomes between $200-$350k were seven times more likely to have at least 150 connections than lower income users.” implies high-income people have more connections. Not that people with lots of connections have high-income.
Really guys. Are you arguing about stuff learned in Logic 101?
Everything is simpler than it seems. Just look at people who are likely to use LinkedIn. They are mostly high-tech or high-tech related. Thus the higher incomes. So the causality is that a certain occupations lead to both higher incomes and using LinkedIn.
I bet if they do the same check for Plaxo the results will be pretty much the same. Oh, right, I forgot. Same people are using both…
Definitely not poor, but “rich” is a stretch.
In my opinion, Linkedin is much more relevant than MySpace and Facebook for business people. It’s not the “spam heaven” you make it out to be. I would argue that Twitter is a LOT more annoying at generating “noise” than Linkedin. A lot of people (myself included) just use Linkedin as a method of keeping in touch with those they have worked with in the past. You should give it another try.
Yeah, thats the problems with social networking sites is the spam. I don’t go on myspace anymore because of the spam.
“2,000 random users polled for the study”
This seems a little shady.
The question we should be asking ourselves is how many active linkedin users are rich. And also, as “hmm” pointed out difference between causality and correlation.
You should click the link in the post to the actual study:
” For the study, Anderson Analytics initially analyzed overall network statistics among 2,000 random ’seed’ users–about half U.S. users and half international–as well as their 51,873 first-level connections. In order to segment users, Anderson Analytics looked at a sample of an additional 12,000 U.S. LinkedIn users and collected additional survey data from 793 of these.”
That’s the best group to try and monetize. This can really be a sweet business.
If you join many groups you will start getting too much hype, just slow down joining groups if you won’t wish annoying mail.
Rich People???? $93,000 is being rich????
Wait a sec, Obamaniacs!!!!!
First I was rich at $250,000, Then last week it was $125,000. Now rich is $93,000??????????
So, should I just quit my IT job, and wait for Big-O to pay my mortgage and my gas (and my BMW, and my Amex, and my meals at The CrabHouse…), because it looks like next week, if you find a dollar in the street, you’re rich….
I’m moving to Caiman Islands. Being rich there is not a bad thing….
Hahahahah! And YOU are a wise guy!
Michael, please — enough already with the LinkedIn invites — I don’t know you!
That’s the whole point of joining the LinkedIn network. There are many social networks out there, this one is specifically for business networking as well as showing you strengths in the market place to boost yourself and potential career. Like you said, you stopped. Clearly it wasn’t for you, but it is very helpful for a lot of people out there who will deal with the annoyances to help better their situations.
Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com
First off, this is likely the worst blog on tech crunch in a while.. If your rant was on mark it would be OK but you are clearly misinformed or just plain clueless. Also,,, consultants are not typically sales people.
I like Linkedin; Kile Kev (above) it helps me keep in touch with a large variety of business contacts as they go from job to job. I cant remember ever getting spammed.
Seems like the survey you did included only you are the participant. Linkedin a great was to search for job and also be in contact with your current and ex colleagues. Also the income figures which you are mentioning are seriously flawed.
In response to (Tostada-man)
Well according to the IRS you are “Rich” if you make above $60,000 a year based on incomes from 1960’s. Obama has nothing to do with that, so stop your brooding and enjoy your tax cut if you are in the under $250k bracket. If not the $600 to $1000 more you pay in taxes is not going to make a bit of difference in your quality of life. Let’s not forget that Regan started spreading the wealth around with the earned income tax credit. Taking taxes collected from the “Rich” and giving to the not so “Rich”
Sorry I digress. I’ve used linked in to land some pretty good projects and have been contacted for consulting on various gaming and marketing related project from some really large companies. So it’s no surprise that the average person on Linkedin makes that kind of money.
I teach people how to use LinkedIn to promote, and your comments are misleading.
I hosted two teleseminars with social networking expert Scott Allen earlier this summer. When used correctly, LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful marketing tools on the planet. Scott said that savvy users don’t do the annoying things you mentioned. Instead they:
–Use the question-and-answer feature to answer questions in their areas of expertise. I know several people who have gotten paid consulting assignments as a result of this.
–Promote what they’re selling, either a product or a service, not by badgering their LinkedIn connections to buy it, but by asking their connections to share the information with their friends and business associates. People had to be sold. But they love to be helpful.
–Give more than they get. Be helpful. Write recommendations for people you’ve done business with and feel comfortable recommending (you can also ask them to do the same for you). Answer questions when somebody is in trouble and needs help. Reply to your LinkedIn messages and join the conversation.
If you don’t want requests for introductions, then turn off that feature. But do NOT abandon this site. Learn how to use it, embrace it, and profit from it. Many of your competitors are doing just that.
Dear Joan,
I absolutely agree with you.
Very best regards,
Biliana
-I didn’t know recruiters were rich (they’re the ones who use it regularly)
-it fits that everyone wants a piece of wealthy people so they get more connections and thus more people wanting to connect to and through them to their other connections/ birds of a feather
Come on Mike – They’re annoying because they wanted to be your friend, I mean, err, connection?
Don’t be a meany – Set up a separate email address and have an intern churn through it once a week.
Sean
As you create wealth or get rich, your world shrinks, it doesn’t get larger via “consultants” It could be a great tool for Network marketing companies as individuals will be turning to the web now more than ever trying to make an extra dollar. My favorite part of this site is watching the feedburner number go up up and more up!!!! Too cool!
This post cracks me up… hurry up to earn $350k!
I am still skeptical about the stats, though. I blogged about it here.
Jason Alba
Author – I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???
“I`m on LinkedIn – Now What???”
The fact that LinkedIn unites People such as Michael Dell (proudly bragging about he recently accepted my invitation), Bill Gates and so lot more, does not makes a LinkedIn-er necessarily Someone or a Person.
We all gotta mind this.
Really in the end aren’t all of these tools, just like clubs, and dare I say sometimes even like high school, or college greek organizations. If it works for you, do it, if it doesn’t don’t use, but do you have to slam the club. Silly.
That’s a lot of plumbers on LinkedIn!
Stop being so naive guys. All this proves is that LinkedIn paid for a survey to make them more appealling to advertisers and encourage members to subscribe (i.e. more connections = higher income). Here’s the summary: 1) Spend money with us by becoming a Member to grow your network and 2) Spend money with us by Adverting to a disproportionately “rich” audience who ironically, are peddling their resumes and looking for jobs.
Money well spent guys. Looks like people are buying it.
Don’t let Obama and his comrades find out about these disparities! They’ll come up with some sort of social-networking tax (on the affluent) because more affluent people use them than poor people. (This is considered bad by Modern Liberals.) Remember, everything is supposed to be “equal.” (No Valedictorians anymore!)
This is how I explain how Modern Liberals talk about the poor and how they almost never help the poor be successful. Have you noticed this? They almost always work to make the rich more poor and, at the same time, complain that the poor are victims of the rich. This way everyone is “equal”, and as Churchill said, “equally miserable.” As we have seen, this has worked well for Modern Liberals in the inner cities: everyone is poor, “equal” and miserable – the opposite of Democratic Capitalism.
Likewise, early adopters may be a target because the poor and disenfranchised won’t have a chance. I guess they’ll tax early adopters to keep things “equal.”
You left LinkedIn too?
While I don’t make $90k plus, the spam (or requests for contacts) became pretty annoying.
Deleting the account was the best thing I ever did.
If deleting your linkedin account was the best thing you ever did, you’re probably doing something wrong.
“the spam (or requests for contacts) became pretty annoying.”
…until you’re looking for a new job. Expanding the network brings you a lot more info.
Right. *handshake*
Matt is so right.
lol
Think about the double standard.
Only the sick and twisted cock sucking American public could buy the idea that make $100k a year makes you rich.
The sad thing is that that you need to make a min of $200k+ (if you live in a large city) these days to have a family, pay for private school because the public schools stink, pay for college, fund a retirement account, pay the mortgage, and your standard budget items; I am not even talking about non-discretionary things life vacations. I don’t make that, but need to if I am ever going to cover all of the costs without either living in a shoe box, work forever, or make some other significant sacrifice. How did things get so out of whack? Are there any cities out there where it’s not such a stretch to cover the items I mentioned?
Fareed,
Sometimes children need also “stinky schools” – they simply must start up appreciating every loaf of bread since the age of 3. College can be paid in half by the students themselves. Very much advisable.
And sure, the Ferretti boats are very attractive, aren`t they?
Work forever? EVERYBODY works forever. Every single second.
Cheers, pal.
I think this article got the cause and results reversed.
People want to be friends with rich people, hence rich people end up having lots of connections.
A poor lad just increasing bunch of connections won’t raise his income.
I am not sure what we do with this information other than congratulate on designing a job site for the wealthy.
I know who I know and that is all I am allowed to network with on LinkedIn. It doesn’t matter to me if there a billionaires on LinkedIn if they don’t have a need for whta I do and unfortunately there is nothing on LinkedIn that helps me determine that.
And the tool for creating 2000 connections instantly – why would I want to? I join such sites to get more qualified business, not to collect meaningless contacts like Top Trumps cards. The real value of a network is a whether the people in it value YOU, not how many you have.
The interest in chasing volumes and the ability to leave testimonials for people you barely know undermined LinkedIn’s currency a long time ago. It frightens me that people are making hiring decisions using it, but for new business it is almost useless.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
This post comes across as a blatant attempt to advertise already over hyped LinkedIn social network.
Most of these virtual connections are really just that: virtual. For example, I have over 200 people as my linkedin connections most of whom I haven’t seen in 10 years. I bet this is true for most of their users.
The most annoying thing is when a person who you barely exchanged a sentence with sends you a linkedin request to endorse him/her. I’m a sucker for these things so I usually do it out of pity…
I think for most people having an account with some connections is more of a statement that they are on top of things and willing to try out new technologies. The connections are for most part test data…
“I have over 200 people as my linkedin connections most of whom I haven’t seen in 10 years. ”
You.
Too bad, Rob. As it`s actually up to you.
LinkedIn works great for me!
(You’re annoying
The same is here.
Hi, 93 is not rich. 93 is just about the median salary of a programmer.
. . . and, speaking of “rich and annoying,” how-the-heck does a company like LinkedIn justify laying off ten percent of its workforce after just having received an influx of $350 million?? Is this like the AIG field trip, the week after the bailout??
GEEEEZus~jkatt